Q General Ashcroft, just to change the subject
for a moment. Earlier today, you and Governor Ridge lowered the threat advisory
level. Can we read into that that the United States is any safer today than
it was on September 10th? And then secondly, could you just talk about what
role the arrests of the six Buffalo men played in your decision?

ATTY GEN. ASHCROFT: Well, we believe that the threat level should be at the
-- what's called the "elevated" level. We believe that an assessment
of all the intelligence information and the reporting that we have indicates
that that would be the appropriate place for that level.

We had raised that level, and I think from this podium I indicated why, as
a result of an overall assessment based on intelligence data, which factored
in some very troublesome things, including as well the anniversary of the
September 11th date.

Factored in were some threats overseas which were relatively specific, and
the inference that if al Qaeda was to be active in variety of settings overseas,
it might be likely that they would be active in the United States.

Obviously, factored into that was the fact that we also had an awareness of
activity that demanded our attention in this country.

Now, since that time, we have asked the intelligence community on a regular
basis, as we always do, as is our matter of course, daily to provide us with
indications of what kind of traffic they are encountering, and what kind of
risk or threat there seems to be. And it is clear that we have made arrests
in Buffalo, we've made arrests in Bahrain, we've made arrests in Pakistan.

We had things that were disrupted in the Southeast Asia region. And it was
based on those kinds of incidents and the information provided by the intelligence
community that led us to say to the American people we will return from a
high risk assessment posture to an elevated.

Now, I want to emphasize that we are not saying there is no risk. We still
think there is an elevated level of risk. We still believe that al Qaeda is
an international network; that it still has the reach that makes it global
in scope and nature; that we know from them that when we work hard, we disrupt
their activities, and when citizens are alert, we disrupt their activities.

We believe that based on the information as I mentioned, the activities I
mentioned, the intelligence provided to us by the intelligence community,
that it was appropriate to recategorize the risk at the elevated level rather
than the high level. And yes, in part, that's a result of the fact that we
have been having some success in our pursuit of those individuals who have
been associated with the international terrorist movement.

But I just would again note that we consider the risk to still be an elevated
risk; it's a very serious risk, and we ask for citizens to remain alert, and
that people continue to try and work together with governments, not just ours,
but around the world, to make sure that we minimize terrorist threats.

Yes, sir?

Q Attorney General, on that same topic, both you and Governor Ridge have said
that the government believes there are sleeper cells of al Qaeda still waiting
to get operational in the United States. Is that still true, or has this recent
activity disrupted that --

ATTY GEN. ASHCROFT: We have no reason to believe that the United States is
absent al Qaeda-associated individuals.

We believe it is an organization which is still bent on injuring America and
Americans, that it is worldwide in scope. We have not lost sight of the fact
that tens of thousands of individuals were trained by al Qaeda and that they
are associated with, obviously, other individuals who didn't find their way
to training facilities of al Qaeda in the Middle East. So I don't want anything
that I have said to be misconstrued to indicate in any way somehow that there
is an absence of al Qaeda threat in the United States. We don't believe that.
We believe that it was appropriate to restate the threat based on the assessment
of the current threat situation from a high threat to an elevated threat.

Q Do you still believe that there are sleeper cells in the United States waiting
to go operational?

ATTY GEN. ASHCROFT: I believe that there are al Qaeda operatives in the United
States who are assets to the al Qaeda network around the world. And if I,
obviously, had specific information about an operation that they were about
to carry out, believe me, I would be taking action in regard to those specific
individuals.

Yes, sir.

Q Sir, today we heard from the JIC regarding the FBI. It painted a fairly
dismal picture of the FBI in the runup to 9/11 of last year. Can you assure
the American public that the necessary reforms have taken place at the FBI
so they feel confident that the FBI and the Justice Department is doing as
much as they can to combat al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations?

ATTY GEN. ASHCROFT: The walls that once separated the FBI from other intelligence
agencies, for example, were walls created by the Congress and governmental
entities quite some time ago. If you'll think back to when the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act was brought into existence, in the 1970s, there was a --
perhaps an unwarranted myth that somehow you could separate domestic matters
from international matters and that intelligence gained at the international
-- in the international arena wouldn't be relevant to things happening domestically
and vice versa.

These walls that separated these agencies prohibited the kind of cooperation
which we now know is essential. That's one of the reasons in the very few
days after September the 11th we went to the Congress and said we must adjust
this. We must pass the USA Patriot Act, which fosters communication across
these agency lines. I have personally gone beyond that to say about the FBI
that no longer are you restrained from doing what other law enforcement agencies
are doing, you have a responsibility to keep your ears open, your eyes open,
if need be, surf the web, go to public places. You don't have the authority
to invade private spaces that are protected, but you must go to public places
and think carefully about what we can do to prevent terrorism.

Obviously, at the FBI Director Mueller has stood up, has created a new intelligence
or analysis aspect of the FBI with this in mind. So structurally, the Congress
has helped us take aside those walls which had been put in place congressionally
in the 1970s.

Now, some of those things are still being worked out. As it relates to the
full implementation of the Patriot Act, the Justice Department is appealing
a judicial ruling that might impair some of the collaboration and cooperation
that would exist between these agencies when it relates to the use of this
information freely for both preventative work to prevent terrorism, and prosecutorial
work to send those who might be involved in terrorism into detention or punishment.
We're going to continue to work that way as aggressively as we can. And I
am grateful that the Congress has disassembled a wall once constructed in
the Congress that provided a barrier or a blockage that kept the kind of information
from flowing freely that we need to have flowing.

Q Do you support Senator Lieberman's proposal for a blue ribbon 9/11 commission?

ATTY GEN. ASHCROFT: The administration has indicated that it endorses the
idea of a commission to review and find out if there are additional ways that
we can learn from what happened in 9/11 so as to improve our capacity to prevent
terrorism.

STAFF: Last question.

Q General, you mentioned the indictment of the members of FARC last March.
I'm wondering if any of these have ever been arrested or extradited, or we've
made -- progress has been made on this issue?

(Off mike conversation.)

ATTY GEN. ASHCROFT: Yes. Carlos Bolas I believe was apprehended in Suriname.
And he remains in the custody of the United States pursuant to the indictments
that were announced I believe last March -- did we say that?